The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a challenge to an obscure provision of President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax package, ending a lawsuit that many experts feared could destabilize the nation’s tax system.
In a 7-2 decision, the court upheld a one-time tax on offshore earnings that helped fund the massive tax cut is permitted under Congress’s limited powers of taxation.An unusual political coalition defended the offshore-earnings tax, from the Biden administration to conservatives including former House speaker Paul D. Ryan.
The Moores told the court they never earned any money from their investment, and they sued the federal government seeking a refund. The district court dismissed their case,the tax was within Congress’s power and permitted under the 16th Amendment regardless of whether the Moores took in, or “realized,” any income.
The specific tax that the Moores object to paying, known as Section 965, was forecast to raise more than $300 billion over 10 years. Some major corporations have already paid billions under this specific tax; a ruling that struck itADVERTISEMENT Some tax experts said the Moores were more involved in the company than they disclosed in court filings and urged the court not to decide the constitutional question based on an inaccurate, incomplete record. One of the couple’s lawyers defended the record as accurate and candid.